Pay, Holiday & Sickness

Issues and problems may arise from time-to-time in relation to entitlement to pay, including bonuses and commissions or in connection with your entitlement to holiday pay or sick pay. We explain your employment rights.

Pay

Pay includes:

salary

holiday pay

statutory sick pay

statutory maternity pay

bonus entitlement

commission

Your employer cannot make a deduction from your pay unless:

you have given prior written consent to your employer

it is required or permitted by a statutory provision or the contract of employment

Depending on the circumstances, you may be able to bring a claim for unauthorised deduction from pay.

Holidayand sick pay

Minimum holiday rights were first introduced by the Working Time Regulations in 1998. These rights have been increased over recent years to 28 days holiday, including bank holidays, for full-time employees and workers. This is reduced pro-rata for those working part-time. Some employers provide more holiday than this in your contract of employment. Calculating holiday entitlement can be more difficult if you work variable hours or part-time.

The legal entitlement to holiday is a right to take the holiday. There is not normally a right for payment to be made in lieu of holiday although this may be permitted if you have outstanding holiday when you leave your employment and in certain other circumstances.

What happens if you are sick when you are on holiday? Following a recent case in the European Court of Justice, employees in the public sector can now require that they be allowed to take the holiday lost through illness at a later date. The position in the private sector is not yet clear.

Our solicitors can advise you on all aspects of your pay entitlements.